Having talked a few more times with Esaul about tomorrow's attack, which now, looking at the proximity of the French, Denisov seemed to have finally decided, he turned the horse and went back.
- Well, bg'at, let's go talk about it," he said to Pete.
Driving up to the forest guard, Denisov stopped looking into the forest. In the woods, between the trees, between the big easy steps, walking on long legs, with long winding arms, a man in a jacket, legs and a Kazan hat, with a gun over his shoulder and an axe behind his belt. Seeing Denisov, this man hurriedly threw something into the bush and took off his wet hat with the sagging fields and came to his boss. It was Tikhon. His face, pitted with small small smallpox and wrinkles, shone with smug fun. He held his head high and stared at Denisov as if he were not laughing.
- Well, where did Pg's fall? - Denisov said.
- Where have you been? He followed the French," Tikhon answered boldly and hastily with a hoarse, but singing bass.
- Why did you climb up during the day? Bastard! Well, I didn't take it?
- I took it," Tikhon said.
- Where is he?
- I took him first on the zor'ka still," Tikhon continued, moving his legs wider and wider, turning them upside down, "and brought him into the woods. I see, it's not okay. I think I'll go, let me go, the other one be careful what I take.
- Ish, the shelf, it is," said Denisov to Esaulu. - Why didn't you pg'iwel this?
- Well," Tikhon said angrily and hastily, "to drive him," not good enough. Don't I know what you need?
- It's a beast! Well?
- I followed someone else," Tikhon continued, "and I crawled into the woods in such a manner that I lay down. - Tikhon suddenly and flexibly lay down on his belly, imagining in his faces how he did it. - You're on your own," he continued. - I'm going to rob him of it in that way. - Tikhon jumped quickly, easily. - Let's go to the colonel, I say. How to make a mess. And there are four of them here. They threw themselves at me with skewers. I used an axe like that on them: "What are you, Christ with you," said Tikhon, waving his hands and scowling with fearsome frown, exposing his chest.
- We saw you asking through puddles and puddles from the mountains," said Esaul, narrowing his shiny eyes.
Petya really wanted to laugh, but he saw that everyone wasn't laughing. He quickly turned his eyes from the face of Tikhon to the face of Esaul and Denisov, not understanding what it all meant.
- Don't give me that," Denisov said, angry and coughing. - Why didn't Peggy Peggyavell?
Tikhon began to scratch his back and head with one hand, and suddenly his whole face stretched out into a shining, stupid smile that revealed his tooth defect (which is why he was nicknamed Scherbaty). Denisov smiled, and Petya laughed cheerfully, and Tikhon himself joined him.
- Yes, it was a malfunction," Tikhon said. - His clothes are bad on him, and where to take him. Yes, and rude, your nobility. I'm not going to go," he said.
- What an asshole! - Denisov said. - I need to ask...
- I asked him," said Tikhon. - He said: "I don't know him well. There are a lot of us, he says, but all the bad ones; only, he says, one name. Ahneta," he said, "you will take everyone away," concluded Tikhon, looking into Denisov's eyes with joy and determination.
- I'm going to give you a hundred goggles, and you're going to claw your claws," said Denisov strictly.
- Well, I haven't seen your Frenchmen," said Tikhon. Let it go dark, I'll bring you three of them.
- Well, let's go," Denisov said, and he drove angrily and silently until the guardhouse.
Tikhon came in from behind, and Petya heard Cossacks laughing with him and at him about some boots he threw into the bush.
When that man, who had laughed at Tikhon's words and smile, passed by, Petya realized for a moment that Tikhon had killed a man, he felt uncomfortable. He looked back at the prisoner of the drummer and something stabbed him in the heart. But this awkwardness lasted only for one moment. He felt the need to raise his head, cheer up, and ask the sesaul about tomorrow's business, so as not to be unworthy of the society he was in.
The sent officer met Denisov on the road with the news that Dolokhov himself would be arriving now and that everything was safe on his part.
Denisov suddenly cheered up and called Petya to his house.
- Well, you tell me about yourself," he said.